Paraparaumu Beach Golf Course

Few courses in the Southern Hemisphere carry the architectural pedigree of Paraparaumu Beach. Designed by Alex Russell in 1949 — the same Australian architect behind Royal Melbourne's West Course, working alongside Alister MacKenzie — the layout was built on genuine linksland running along the Kapiti Coast north of Wellington. Golf World has ranked it among the top 100 courses in the world, and it remains New Zealand's most celebrated links, a rare piece of ground that would feel at home on the Fife coast or the Lancashire dunes.

The terrain does most of the talking. Tussock-fringed fairways roll and tumble through sandy ridges, with the Kapiti Island silhouette sitting offshore across Cook Strait — one of the more arresting backdrops in world golf. Wind is essentially a sixth sense here; the prevailing southerlies off the strait can turn any card sideways, and reading the ground game matters as much as the aerial one.

Paraparaumu Beach is a private members' club but open to visitors, and it draws serious golfers from across the globe who come specifically for this ground. It has hosted multiple New Zealand Opens and remains the benchmark against which every other New Zealand course is measured.